Fainting

Chapter 3 - Allison

A couple of minutes after Olive and Austin leave, Nurse Molly comes in.

"Hello, Miss Parker. How are you feeling?"

"Definitely better than before, thanks. I don't think I'm dizzy anymore and I'm in a little less pain."

The nurse nods. "That's good. So tell me, what happened? You fainted, but tell me the story."

"I was going out to eat – I had just finished cleaning up and I realized it was a little after two pm and I hadn't eaten lunch yet. So I drove to a restaurant – I wasn't feeling up to cooking – and was walking inside when I collapsed. My sister called me and I was talking to her; as I hung up, I stumbled and fell. At least, that last bit is what the paramedics told me, repeating what the guy who called them said."

"I see. Shaking, you said?" When I nod, she continues. "Do you have any idea why?"

"Oh, yeah: I have POTS."

"Oh, yes, that would make sense. I would assume you fainted from lack of salt; is that possible?"

"Definitely. Or food in general. I ate breakfast around seven thirty and only had some water and fruit in between then and now."

Nurse Molly thinks for a moment. "Okay, so we have our speculations about what the problem is, but when I leave I'm going to call the doctor. The regular ER doctor – emergency medicine doctor is the official name – will be in here shortly to examine you and just make sure there's nothing else going on. You understand?"

I nod. "Yup. Thank you for giving me a rundown."

She smiles. "No problem. Now, I have to finish my questions first before I call the doctor. Where do you have pain?"

"Head really hurts, my leg muscles feel weak, my stomach hurts, and this isn't pain, but my fingers are tingling."

"Huh. Most of those are normal because you just fainted, but the tingling is a little weird. Have to tell the doctor that." She begins to do a physical examination: checks my blood pressure and heart rate, feels my stomach, examines my eyes and ears. "Have you felt any of these pains prior to fainting or only when you woke up?"

I think for a moment. "Actually, yes, my fingers were on and off tingling for the past couple of days; my legs occasionally feel weak because of POTS; headaches are a regular occurrence; and stomach is usually okay. So maybe half are new."

She detaches the monitors from me and hooks me up to another IV – the paramedics removed my first one when they transferred me. "Alright, I will go get the doctor. Just hang tight for a minute." She leaves.

A few minutes later there's a knock on the door. "Come in," I call.

The door opens and in walks a doctor. "Good afternoon, Miss Parker. I'm Dr Johnson, Emergency Room Medical Technician. I evaluate all ER patients – well, not all, but a lot." I wonder if he and Nurse Molly work together often or even if they're related. They seem super similar. "So, tell me: you have tingling in your fingers?"

"Yup. It's like throbbing, but lighter. Like, throbbing is harsh, hard pain, while this in light and smooth." I cringe. "I don't know if that was helpful."

"Well, it's good you can distinguish the two. That's important. Nurse Molly here is going to take a blood test, and we'll come back with the results in ten. Okay?"

Doesn't sound like anything I can object to. "Okay, thank you."

He nods and I get a blood test. Yay. Every time I get one it's always different; once it stung so badly from the moment the needle poked me until about three days later. This one is not so painful, thank God.

When they leave, I think for the second time today that I'm gonna go crazy with boredom. Now if there were a TV I could watch the Masters Tournament, which begins today, but unfortunately this room is lacking in one. So I get to twiddle my thumbs.

Sixteen minutes and twenty-three seconds later, there's another knock on the door and it opens revealing the doctor and the nurse.

"Alright, Miss Parker, this is what you have: electrolyte disorder – well, that's the official term, but 'disorder' sounds wrong. That's not what it is. It's more like a deficiency, a lacking."

I've never heard of that before and I have POTS – I need a lot of electrolytes. "I'm sorry, what is that?"

"Your electrolyte levels are low," Nurse Molly says. "You know what electrolytes are, correct?"

They're elements in the body that control many functions, I think. And they need to be balanced? I say this out loud, and the nurse responds, "Good. Well, your electrolytes, specifically calcium, are currently low. You have hypocalcemia – calcium deficiency."

Great. One more medical issue. "Is this something that's a one-time thing, or is this something that I now live with?"

"It's something we treat now. Once we bring your calcium levels up, you're good to go. Now, it might happen again, but it's not consistent, no, not like POTS," the doctor says.

Phew.

"But you will need to be admitted to the hospital so we can treat it," he adds.

Dang it.

"I'll go call an orderly to bring you to the general ward, okay?" the nurse says. "It should only be a couple of minutes."

"Okay, thank you so much," I respond. They smile, wave, and leave, and I'm waiting once more.

Finally. I've been in the hospital about four hours, most of it spent waiting, and I'm finally settled in my room for the next two days or so.

About five minutes after the nurse and doctor left, a woman in scrubs comes in pushing a bed. Following her is Nurse Molly to help transfer me. They lift me up – not very smoothly at all – and plop me down on the other bed. I move around, try to get comfortable, as the woman pushes me down the hall towards the elevator. Up the elevator, through a set of automatic double doors, and down the hall we go. As we pass the nurses' station, a doctor – I assume she's one; she has a white coat – says hello and points the woman to "bed seventeen" and turns to answer the nurse who's calling her. I get pushed into the room and transferred onto the larger bed already waiting and the woman leaves. A few minutes later another woman in scrubs briskly comes in holding a clipboard. "Hello. I'm Nurse Florence and I'm going to be your nurse while you're here. Here's some paperwork for you to fill out when you get a chance." 

When I get a chance. Right. I'll try to fit it in; I have a super busy schedule now.

She attaches me to IV's and other wires that I have no idea what they do, and then she leaves, and here I am.

I quickly fill out the paperwork and pick up the TV remote when there's another knock on the door.